The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Nokia And Microsoft Make An Unholy Alliance To Bring Office Mobile To More Phones
- Boxee Watches $6 Million More In Funding Stream In
- Texas Judge Rules Microsoft Can’t Sell Word Anymore
- Facebook Lite In Pictures. “So Much Damn Faster,” Says User
- There Is Life In Femtocells Yet - Ubiquisys Raises Another $11m
- GigLocator, A Smart New Place To Find Gig Tickets
- What Facebook Lite Actually Is. Hint: It’s Not Twitter Or FriendFeed.
- LinkedIn Reaches 45 Million Users
- Facebook Begins Testing Facebook Lite, A Faster Simpler Version Of The Service
- Poor Google Knol Has Gone From A Wikipedia Killer To A Craigslist Wannabe
- The New Media School: Because College Didn’t Teach You A Thing About The Digital Economy
- IPO Registrations Are Returning From The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death
- DVD Jon Posts His Apple Anti-trust Subpoena
- Schiller Reaches Out Again To Acknowledge App Store Problems
- Help Us By Taking The 2009 Web Application Survey
- Facebook Launches One-Way Mailbox API. Woo hoo.
- Facebook Proposes To Ban Sponsored Status Updates
- After Ten Years In Business, MyWebGrocer Raises $13 Million In Series A
- Trampoline’s Crowdfunding Idea Jump Starts Investors
- Video: Aaron Sorkin Talks Facebook Movie. Unsure Of Why He’s Involved, But Loves It.
- Tr.im: We Were Just Kidding About Cutting You Off. Also, We’re Still For Sale.
- Google Shifts Ads (To The Left)
- Racevine Lets You Review Races You’ve Run, Lost
- Another Day, Another Twitter Outage
- Amanda Hesser And Merrill Stubbs Crowdsource a Cookbook With Food52
| Nokia And Microsoft Make An Unholy Alliance To Bring Office Mobile To More Phones Posted: 12 Aug 2009 08:18 AM PDT Microsoft and Nokia announced a broad ranging alliance this morning which will bring Microsoft Office and other productivity software to a Nokia phones. The agreement marks “the first time Microsoft will make Office for non windows mobile phones,” says Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop. There are 200 million Nokia smart phones out there, and Microsoft wants its software on all of them eventually. But initially, the alliance is targeting enterprise customers and will be integrated into Nokia’s E Series business phones. The Microsoft software and features that will be ported to Nokia phones include:
But the alliance aims to go “way beyond email and Office,” says Nokia's Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö. Microsoft and Nokia are focusing on communication and productivity apps (Office, IM, Sharepoint, OneNote), but the alliance opens up those 200 million Nokia smart phones to future Mobile apps from Microsoft, perhaps including Mesh (which will sync all apps across all devices). The alliance is an acknowledgment that Windows Mobile is not going to take over the world, and smartly extends the reach of Microsoft’s mobile apps to a huge new audience of mobile professionals. It also positions Microsoft and Nokia in an unholy alliance against the encroachments of the more modern iPhone and Android smart phones. It allows Microsoft to deeply integrate its mobile apps into Nokia phones in a way that might make them more appealing to corporate customers. “This is not a browser discussion,” says Elop. These mobile applications will create “really rich experiences that bring that device to life.” The apps will start with email and productivity, but will be designed to drive collaboration through instant messaging, presence management, and call control. The alliance for now covers only Nokia phones with the Symbian operating system, which lends to its dinosaur feel. Why do you need an “alliance” to create apps for a mobile computer? Microsoft doesn’t need an alliance to create Office apps for Android or the iPhone because they are (relatively) open mobile platforms. What this alliance highlights more than anything else is Symbian’s creaking age. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Boxee Watches $6 Million More In Funding Stream In Posted: 12 Aug 2009 08:00 AM PDT
But why now? After all, Boxee raised its first round of funding just 8 months ago, a $4 million round with Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital investing. “We’ve seen a lot of momentum over the past couple of months. It seemed like it made sense to go ahead [with a new round],” Boxee’s new head of marketing Andrew Kippen tells us. Kippen, who previously worked with Boxee in his role at Stage Two Consulting, is the first of many hires Boxee hopes to make over the next couple of months, CEO Avner Ronen says. When it closed its Series A round in November, Boxee was just 11 people, the goal is to ramp up to 20 as soon as possible. This includes engineers but also a strong business team to work on getting Boxee into more devices. At the same time, Boxee is working hard to get the beta version of its software out the door (it’s still currently in Alpha). Back in June, it previewed that release while also unleashing a huge update to its service which finally included support for Windows. With that important support, the service now has over 600,000 users, we’re told. General Catalyst Partners accounted for $4 million of this second round, with previous investors Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital each throwing in another $1 million as well. On top of the investment, General Catalyst’s Neil Sequeira is also joining Boxee’s board. Also on the board is Union Square’s Fred Wilson and Spark’s Bijan Sabet. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Texas Judge Rules Microsoft Can’t Sell Word Anymore Posted: 12 Aug 2009 06:18 AM PDT  Go ahead and clean up the coffee you just spit all over your keyboard. We'll wait. Back? OK. A judge and Texas as ruled that Microsoft Word's XML systems violate patents by Toronoto-based i4i Inc. Word uses XML in reading and writing XML, DOCX, and DOCM files. The lawsuit alleges that MS violated i4i's 1998 XML patent #5,787,449. The injunction will go into effect in 60 days and prevent Microsoft from selling or demonstrating Microsoft Word. MS will have to pay i4i about $290 million in damages.
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| Facebook Lite In Pictures. “So Much Damn Faster,” Says User Posted: 12 Aug 2009 03:25 AM PDT So, we’ve already explained why the newly revealed “Facebook Lite” at the very least wasn’t conceived to be a “Twitter-killer,” but it does look interesting. The service, which is currently being tested in India (and sadly, not in the U.S. despite the messages sent out last night), has an extremely clean look and feel to it — one that is reminiscent of the old days of Facebook, when its simplified look drew users away from the cluttered MySpace. Of course now, Facebook is itself cluttered with settings, applications and toolbars. So to many, this Facebook Lite design would be welcome. Check it out in the images below we received from a user, Azhar Chougle, testing it in India. He notes that the third image (the one showing something broken) occurs when you try to go to the Events and Settings, which apparently aren’t ready for Facebook Lite yet. You’ll also notice that “Events” is now in the top nav bar, something which is not the case on the current version of Facebook. Perhaps most importantly, Chougle notes, “And let me tell you it’s so much damn faster than the normal Facebook.” Though neither he nor us understand what is up with the “Send us Your Feedback” guy in picture number 2 (it’s actually Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook’s VP of Growth, Mobile and International). The final picture is my own, significantly more cluttered current Facebook homepage. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| There Is Life In Femtocells Yet - Ubiquisys Raises Another $11m Posted: 12 Aug 2009 02:59 AM PDT
The money will fund a range of consumer and enterprise products, to be deployed globally over the coming year. Ubiquisys’ investors include Accel, Atlas Venture, Google and the T-Mobile Venture Fund. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| GigLocator, A Smart New Place To Find Gig Tickets Posted: 12 Aug 2009 02:47 AM PDT
It has a smart search engine which knows if you’re looking for artists, venues and so on. Enter multiple Last.fm, Pandora or iLike usernames and the site will keep you informed about your favourite artists’ upcoming tour dates. You can then share the dates with friends via your social network of choice. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| What Facebook Lite Actually Is. Hint: It’s Not Twitter Or FriendFeed. Posted: 12 Aug 2009 02:01 AM PDT
But, with the cat out of the bag, everyone is now rushing to reach some conclusions about what Facebook Lite actually is. Most of these assumptions revolve around Twitter and FriendFeed. The reasons for this should be obvious: First, Facebook and Twitter seem to have a nice rivalry going on to see who is the hottest social property. Second, Facebook just bought FriendFeed for $50 million, so it would seem possible that they want to develop a service just like that one. And third, the screenshot of Facebook Lite, which we found earlier, makes it look a lot like Twitter and FriendFeed. But in reality, Facebook Lite has nothing to do with Twitter or FriendFeed — at least, not right now. Instead, it was designed to be used in parts of the world where broadband speeds vary and can be expensive, we’re being told by Facebook. Given that the initial testing of it has taken place in India over the past several days, this makes sense. Think about how slow Facebook is to load at times on some broadband connections here in the U.S., and just imagine what that much be like on connections that are several times slower. And then also consider that all of Facebook’s datacenters are here in the U.S. So for the data to get around the world, it creates an even longer natural load time. So Facebook is stripping the site back and allowing Facebook Lite to be a site where new users can quickly write on friend’s walls, send messages and build their social network. The basics. As we said, it’s testing in India right now, but the plan is for Facebook Lite to hit places like Russia and China as well, we’re hearing. All that being said, it is entirely possible that the service could find its way to the rest of the world as an option for those who maybe don’t want all the bells and whistles that Facebook provides, and instead just want speed. Facebook didn’t have anything to say on that matter, and specifically not the U.S., but it seems reasonable. After all, MySpace has a “lite” version too. But don’t buy into the hype that we’re already starting to hear that Facebook Lite is a “Twitter-killer” — because that’s not its intention at all right now. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| LinkedIn Reaches 45 Million Users Posted: 12 Aug 2009 01:48 AM PDT
According to comScore, LinkedIn had 16 million worldwide monthly unique visitors and 331 million page views in June 2009, up from 7.7 million and 114 million a year ago, respectively. The company was valued at around $1 billion in its last (2008) round of financing, and says they’ve been profitable for 2+ years. LinkedIn has gone through numerous changes at the CEO role with founder Reid Hoffmanchanging the guard once again in June of this year after yet another change in December of 2008. The company is a strong 2010 IPO candidate. Hoffman told us earlier this year "we can go public any time we want to.” Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| Facebook Begins Testing Facebook Lite, A Faster Simpler Version Of The Service Posted: 11 Aug 2009 11:51 PM PDT
It looks like Facebook has tonight turned on a feature called “Facebook Lite” for some users to test out. We’re getting bombarded by tips about it, and some of us are seeing it as well. Unfortunately, it appears that it may not be fully ready for prime time yet, but we have more information and what looks to be a screenshot below, so keep reading. [Update: See Facebook's response at the bottom, the test was mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended tonight.] So what is it? Well, it looks to be exactly what it says it is, a lighter version of Facebook. The beta tester message reads:
The URL for the feature is http://lite.facebook.com. So far, users are reporting not seeing much different about the site, if anything. You’ll recall that MySpace launched a “lite” version for its profiles in April. Update: Okay, while it seems that most of the users who are getting this message now are not seeing much different, earlier this week, it looks like a very select few may have gotten a sneak peak at Facebook Lite. According to their tweets on it, it appears to be a more Twitter-like. One user notes that it, “looks like a simplified version of twitter with comments enabled. On 2nd thought, it looks like simplified FriendFeed.” That is of course very interesting since Facebook just bought FriendFeed for around $50 million yesterday. Update 2: We just found a screenshot of what this apparently looks like. Again, this was taken a few days ago. Update 3: FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit shared our story on FriendFeed, so naturally I asked if he knew about this beforehand. “Someone mentioned it earlier today. It sounds very promising,” he says. Update 4: And here’s Facebook’s official response:
Whoops, looks like someone at Facebook jumped the gun on this new feature. Too bad, looks like most of us will have to wait awhile to try it out. Update 5: And here’s what Facebook Lite is really all about. Update 6: And here are some more pictures of Facebook Lite. We are updating this. [thanks to everyone who sent this in] Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Poor Google Knol Has Gone From A Wikipedia Killer To A Craigslist Wannabe Posted: 11 Aug 2009 08:11 PM PDT We’ve known for a while that Google’s Knol is no Wikipedia killer, but now the knowledge-sharing site is being reduced to a sad Craigslist wannabe. The original idea behind Knol was that people could collaboratively write definitive articles about any topic they like and get rewarded by earning a share of the AdSense revenues for each page they author. Well, that model doesn’t work so well if nobody bothers to read the articles on Knol no matter how much search karma Google gives them. Quantcast estimates that only 174,000 people visited the site in the past month. So what do you do if your Knol page isn’t throwing up enough AdSense pennies to make it worth your while? You try to sell a pair of stereo speakers directly to the few lost souls who somehow end up at Knol. Will Johnson, a self-described “professional genealogist and biographer,” decided to share his Knol-edge of a pair of “Bose 2.2 direct reflecting bookshelf speakers for sale”—his own (only $70). In fact, he started his own Knol Marketplace and bookstore. While selling your junk on Knol is not necessarily prohibited by Google. Knol’s content policy seems to allows for commercial activity as long as it doesn’t drive traffic (and potential ad clicks) to another site. But a group of some of Knol’s top writers who actively police the site feel that it violates the spirit of the service. They don’t want Knol to become another Craigslist. Sadly, Knol just never panned out. Google should just end its misery, just like it did when it killed other under-performing projects such as Lively and Google Notebooks. Knol will never come close to Wikipedia. It can’t even cut it as a classifieds listing site. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| The New Media School: Because College Didn’t Teach You A Thing About The Digital Economy Posted: 11 Aug 2009 07:48 PM PDT
Nick O’Neill , founder of the The Social Times, is looking to help. O’Neill is launching an educational program called the New Media School, which is setting out to help both companies and individuals most effectively take advantage of the businesses opportunities afforded by the web. The school’s first course is the Social Media Marketing Program, which entitles participants to a number of text guides as well as a series of video lectures led by a solid roster of industry veterans. Each lecture will be streamed live via Livestream, and students in the program will be able to submit questions live via an integrated chat box. The course will begin in about a week and a half. The school is charging $147 per month, and plans to offer new content on a rolling basis. For now, O’Neill is restricting the class size to 125. He explains that while the video lectures will be held via video stream (which presumably would have a much higher limit), he will be personally advising each participating company and indivdual through the course’s forums. There will also be virtual ‘office hours’ conducted through Livestream. O’Neill mentioned that he may consider offering alternative formats in the future (perhaps a video-only option without the one-on-one support), but the school is still in early stages so he’s eager to first see what people are interested in. Here’s a full list of the program’s instructors:
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| IPO Registrations Are Returning From The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death Posted: 11 Aug 2009 06:38 PM PDT Another small sign that the worst of the recession may be behind us: IPO registrations are clawing their way back from the shadow of the valley of death (also known as the first quarter if 2009, when there were zero IPOs registered with the SEC). So far in July and August alone there have been 14 IPOs, as many as in the previous three quarters combined. These numbers and the chart above are based on the number of IPO filings tracked by Hoovers as of yesterday. Renaissance Capital counts 16 IPO registrations in July and August, and if you look on the SEC’s Edgar site it looks like a few more filed today. Registering for an IPO doesn’t mean that the company is actually going to go through with it, but the volume of filings is a good confidence index for startups. Most of the companies filing are not technology-related (Hyatt Hotels, RailAmerica, Bayview Mortgage Capital), although Ancestry.com did file on August 3. In terms of actual IPOs, we saw five venture-backed companies start trading in the second quarter, including OpenTable, which is still trading above its $20 offering price. All this means is that more companies are willing to take a shot at going public, which is encouraging in and of itself. But don’t expect the actual number of IPOs to recover for at least another year. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| DVD Jon Posts His Apple Anti-trust Subpoena Posted: 11 Aug 2009 06:15 PM PDT
The subpoena (posted below), is basically a bunch of legal speak, but it’s pretty clear that the court is interested in obtaining any and all documents DVD Jon has that may be relevant to the case surrounding the legality of the entire iPod/iTunes ecosystem. Specifically, they are looking for documents from January 1, 2003 onward. The key part is the last part:
Find the subpoena below. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| Schiller Reaches Out Again To Acknowledge App Store Problems Posted: 11 Aug 2009 05:27 PM PDT
This follows Schiller emailing Daring Fireball’s John Gruber last week, also about issues with the App Store. But unlike Schiller’s email to Gruber, which was about a specific instance, his email to Frank seems as if it was a more general one. It’s hard to know for sure because Frank didn’t ask Schiller for permission to republish it (which Gruber did), but he did summarize parts of it. Basically, it sounds like Schiller and others at Apple read this post by Frank, laying out what would have to change in the App Store in order for him to go back to using an iPhone. Frank says that Schiller took exception to the rumor that Apple had begun widely banning e-books, saying there was only one specific example where that was the case over a copyright issue. But Schiller did apparently acknowledge many of the other problems that Frank had with the store. As Frank summarized it, Schiller said, “we're listening to your feedback.” Of course, the proof will be in the pudding, but it’s hard to take these two emails by Schiller as anything but a good sign. It’s still perplexing to me that one of Apple’s Senior VPs, basically the second or third best known guy at the company (it’s the same Phil Schiller than has run the past few keynotes in Jobs’ absence), is the one reaching out here after months of basically no communication from anyone else at Apple. Certainly, they have a PR team, I’m just not sure why Apple was forcing them to be silent, only to have an executive speak on the matter. It’s great that Schiller is saying these things, so that he’ll be held accountable for them, but it’s kind of crazy that it has come to that. Clearly, Apple knows there are some very real problems with the App Store process. But the issue is now: How do they fix them? Communication is the first step, but it will still be difficult to drastically overhaul the system that is already so massive and gaining size everyday. But I have to believe they’ll be able to do it. Too much money is on the line now with the iPhone for them not to. To summarize what I wrote this weekend (so you don’t have to read all 3,500+ words — though, feel free to!), I think it’s foolish to think that Apple will just let these problems go on forever without fixing them. Some use the argument that they believe Apple has malicious intentions in trying to control the App Store. I have always believed that its screw-ups were simply a result of two things: 1) Its desire above all else to make a great product, which has lead to what many (including myself in a number of situations) consider to be perverse levels of controls. And 2) The fact that it had no idea the App Store would explode in popularity the way that it has. It wasn’t ready for it, and it has shown. It’s time for Apple to step up and fix the App Store. And Schiller’s recent efforts seem to suggest that they’re ready to do just that. It’s when they’re not saying anything, that you really have to worry. Which they weren’t — for months. [via Marco] [photo: flickr/blazamos -- yes, also a TechCrunch intern] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| Help Us By Taking The 2009 Web Application Survey Posted: 11 Aug 2009 04:07 PM PDT
With that in mind, we’d like to announce the 2009 TechCrunch Web App Survey. It’s an (optionally) anonymous survey where we can all share a bit of data about our userbase, traffic, financials and more. The more you’re willing to share, the more you’re going to learn from everyone else. The whole goal of this project is to shed some light on a subject that very few people are willing to talk about publicly. It will help web startups understand how they compare to other companies, and then make decisions accordingly. Here are the Questions:
Here’s How it Works: We’re going to collect the data from Aug 11th - Sep 4th and then we’re teaming up with Carsonified to collate, sort and evaluate the data. I’ll reveal the results live at FOWA London 2009. Carsonified will also be designing a full PDF report and website to showcase the findings, which will be available one week after my presentation at FOWA. The report will be completely free to view and download. Let’s Get Started! Just head over to this survey and fill it out. All form data will be kept strictly confidential on an individual basis, only the aggregate data will be released and we won’t disclose the names of the startups that participated. Just click here to get started. Image credit: Mykl Roventine Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0  
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| Facebook Launches One-Way Mailbox API. Woo hoo. Posted: 11 Aug 2009 03:35 PM PDT
The biggest addition — the Mailbox API — is also disappointing because it only lets users receive messages, not send them. Facebook’s mail product has long been a sore spot for the site, though it has been slowly making some improvements (an overhauled version is currently in beta testing — we can’t wait). But aside from UI issues, there has always been the annoying fact that Facebook messages don’t work like true Email, as there is no way to handle your messages outside of Facebook itself. The new API is supposed to help change this. Developers will now be able to tap into Facebook Mailboxes though the new API, giving them the ability to pull in a user’s Facebook messages. This means that you could conceivably use a desktop mail client to browse through your Facebook Mail. But because Facebook has only gone half way, developers have no way to send messages from their applications, which means users will have to log on to the site if they ever wish to send out a response. Facebook writes that “while we currently don’t allow applications to send messages through this API, we’re always thinking about new functionality to offer through Facebook Platform.” Lame. The absence of a send function could possibly be attributed to the site wanting to gradually roll out the new API in multiple steps, which would be reasonable, if not a bit frustrating. But if we don’t see a send function included soon, it will be yet another knock against Facebook’s supposed openness. Other new additions include a Notifications API, which gives developers access to the brief updates that typically show up in the bottom right hand corner of the Facebook homepage. Finally, the site is allowing developers to include application attachments in outgoing Facebook messages. They’ve been able to do this before, but the site now uses a more current API technique. Image by satguru. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Facebook Proposes To Ban Sponsored Status Updates Posted: 11 Aug 2009 01:45 PM PDT
This stands in stark contrast to Twitter, which permits (or at least, doesn’t actively discourage) so-called “Sponsored Tweets”, which typically include a link to an online store along with a tag indicating that a tweet was sponsored. The idea behind such updates is that users can share products they like with their friends and make money in the process, but it’s a system that can quickly devolve into a spam fest. With plenty of services in this space that include Izea and Magpie, the PayPerPost model is becoming disturbingly popular on Twitter. Of course, Facebook offers Pages which do allow for commercially-sponsored updates. But the distinction between the two types of profiles are quite clear, and I don’t object to status updates from celebrities endorsing a product nearly as much as I would if it came from one of my friends who became overly-greedy. One other significant change comes in the way Facebook regards users who are accessing the site from countries that the US has an embargo against. The current terms state that users “will not use Facebook if you are located in a country embargoed by the U.S., or are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals.” Facebook has now revised this to only apply to commercial activities, with the new proposed terms stating:
These changes are only proposals so far (Facebook users now have a week to submit their thoughts on the changes), but I’d be surprised if there are many objections. One sidenote: Facebook is running its Governance section so that users can have their say regarding how the documents are written. But there’s apparently no way to see the diffs between each document — in other words, you have to put them side by side and look for any difference in wording manually. To make this even more frustrating, Facebook is arbitrarily inserting rules in the middle of numbered lists rather than adding new rules to the end. Fortunately Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt says that the company will look into addressing these issues, so they may well be resolved the next time the site proposes a change in its TOS. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| After Ten Years In Business, MyWebGrocer Raises $13 Million In Series A Posted: 11 Aug 2009 01:42 PM PDT It is not often that a company waits ten years to take its first venture capital. MyWebGrocer, which was founded in 1999, raised $13 million today in a series A investment from the Stripes Group, a private equity firm in New York City. This is definitely a late-stage growth round. The company is already profitable. Stripes is a private equity firm that likes to invest later-stage growth companies, and there was even an investment bank involved (Montgomery & Co.) as an adviser to MyWebGrocer. Guess who wants to lead any eventual IPO? MyWebGrocer, which is based in Vermont, was initially funded by its founder Rich Tarrant and then from operations as it grew to power the websites of 5,000 grocery stores across the country. Now it is looking to expand more aggressively, which is why it raised the series A. MyWebGrocer runs websites on behalf of grocery chains and sells advertising to consumer packaged goods companies across all the sites, which collectively have a reach of 4 million shoppers. MyWebGrocer makes money both from fees paid by the grocery chains and a rev-share on the online ads. The Website scan be configured to simply show the week’s specials or include full online shopping modules, with the grocery store itself handling the delivery. In that sense it is a white-label version of Peapod, but with a highly-targeted ad network attached. The grocery industry might be a niche, but it is a very large one. And its is an industry that is seemingly willing to outsource its Website operations to companies like MyWebGrocer. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| Trampoline’s Crowdfunding Idea Jump Starts Investors Posted: 11 Aug 2009 01:22 PM PDT
Trampoline Systems, specialists in “social analytics” for companies, launched in the UK and the US last year but a search for a new $8 million round after an initial $5 million round in 2007 from Tudor Investments drew a blank (Tudor was hit badly by the crunch). So they turned to “crowdfunding” using a legally vetted web site to pull in investors - and the efforts are bearing fruit. Two weeks after launching the initiative they’ve now closed a $543,000 round. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Video: Aaron Sorkin Talks Facebook Movie. Unsure Of Why He’s Involved, But Loves It. Posted: 11 Aug 2009 01:15 PM PDT
He claims he was just 3 pages into the 14-page proposal about the book, when he knew he would do it. But it gets better. “If you asked my why I said ‘yes’, I’m not sure that I can give you a clear answer,” Sorkin says. Also crazy is that David Fincher (he of Seven, he of Fight Club) is still said to be in talks to direct it. I’ve read Sorkin’s first stab at the screenplay, and it’s pretty good, entirely too long (it would be about a 2 hour and 45 minute epic if it were shot as-is), but pretty good. Could a movie about Mark Zuckerberg and crew actually be decent? It’s starting to look possible. “I’m having a lot of fun with it,” Sorkin concludes. The video below is from the site MakingOf. As a side note, we love Sorkin because he wrote the words that inspired our best comment ever. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors 
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| Tr.im: We Were Just Kidding About Cutting You Off. Also, We’re Still For Sale. Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:51 PM PDT
The company cites the massive outpouring of pleas not to shut down the service as the reason behind the move. But here’s what we think is really going on. By shutting down the service and announcing that they would be completely dead in a few months, Nambu was ensuring that no one would use it. The problem with this is that they’re also trying to sell Tr.im, for between $80,000 and $100,000, we’ve heard from multiple sources. But everyone is balking at those prices. And with a non-working service, Nambu had absolutely no leverage. So, the service is back and will operate “indefinitely” which is code for “until we can offload the site.” As they say in point number four on their blog post, “This was not a public-relations stunt. At all.” Sure, but it was an awful business decision — one that had to be reversed for any hope of a reasonable sale for them. In their post today, they also make it very clear that they still blame Twitter for showing favoritism (Twitter uses Bit.ly as its default shortener), which led to the rash decision to shut off the service. We’ve also heard they were considering doing the same thing to their Twitter client over the same issue. Nambu also notes that it won’t just offload the site to anyone:
This somewhat explains the multiple emails we’ve gotten from interested parties saying that Nambu is simply not responding to their inquiries about the sale. But a lot of these parties are reputable, so I’m not entirely sure what is going on over at Nambu. Perhaps they just didn’t want to engage some of these offers until the service was back on, and they had some leverage. [photo: flickr/striatic] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors  
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| Google Shifts Ads (To The Left) Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:28 PM PDT Does Google’s search results page feel a little more crowded to you? The ads which used to run down along the right-hand edge of the page are now shifted over to the left, as if to declare, “Hey, look at us!” Maybe this will increase the number of times ads are clicked on. They are certainly more noticeable. The ads now seem like they are now grouped together with the organic results, whereas before they were shunted off to the side (a legacy of the early days of Google when the purity of organic results was protected as much as possible from being sullied by dirty ads). In fact, on my screen the ads take center stage, with a thin line down the middle forming the slimmest barrier separating them from the natural results. I wonder if this design change has something to do with the popularity of wider screens. But the line and central placement of the ads also conveniently draw the eye. Is that what is most important now to Google? Don’t bother your mind with such silly questions. Google needs more clicks, and it shall have them. Update A Google spokesperson confirms that it is always “experimenting with new visual representations” and that it “shifted the ads to the left on the page as a way to help users find what they are looking for on the Internet.” See, it’s for your own good. You were looking for the ads the whole time. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.  
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| Racevine Lets You Review Races You’ve Run, Lost Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:19 PM PDT
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| Another Day, Another Twitter Outage Posted: 11 Aug 2009 12:11 PM PDT Just as users and the entire Twitter developer ecosystem was getting back on its feet after last week’s multi-day outage, Twitter goes down again. The outage last week, which was caused by a DDOS attack, started at around 6 am California time on Friday and went through the weekend. And even when Twitter had periodic uptime, third party apps were still shut down. As usual, we provide a handy list of things to do while fretting about Twitter. Of course, you could choose to work, since it is the middle of a business day, but let’s not go crazy just yet. Update: It’s back! Third party apps are still down, though. They always take the hard hit. And Twitter is calling this an “attack” - “Update (12:17p): We're back up and analyzing the traffic data to determine the nature of this attack.” Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.  
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| Amanda Hesser And Merrill Stubbs Crowdsource a Cookbook With Food52 Posted: 11 Aug 2009 10:42 AM PDT These days, more and more books have accompanying Websites and smart authors even try to attract readers online before the book is even published. Sometimes they even try to enlist those potential readers into contributing to the book (for free). Brooklyn food writers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs are crowdsourcing their next cookbook on a site that just launched in private beta called Food52 (it will open up on September 15, but you can sign up now for an invite at the site). Hesser is a food critic for the New York Times and an author of several cookbooks (including Cooking For Mr. Latte, The Cook And The Gardener, and the upcoming New York Times Cookbook). Stubbs is a freelance food writer and recipe tester. The Food52 project will result in its own cookbook to be published by the Harper Studio (which is also publishing the Gary Vaynerchuk ten-book library). Each recipe in the book will come from the Food52 community. “We want it to be a cooking site where the users feel that they have a voice,” Hesser tells me in her first interview about the project. The site and the book will appeal to anyone who ever wanted to write their own cookbook but never had the time. But it won’t be a free-for-all. Hesser and Stubbs will make editorial decisions with give-and-take from the site’s members. To guide the community, every week two themes will be presented which will act as a call for recipes. This week’s themes (they are really assignments) are “Your Best Grilled Pork Recipe” and “Your Best Watermelon Recipe.” Anyone can submit their favorite recipes, along with photos or videos. Then Hesser and Stubbs select the most promising ones, test them, and choose the best two for each theme. They present these back to the Food52 members, who get to vote which one will make it into the cookbook. “There is a huge tradition of community cookbooks, but none of them are user vetted,” says Hesser. Users can take part in creating the cookbook by submitting their own recipes and helping to edit the submissions through comments, ratings, and votes. (Recipes can be flagged if someone tries to pass one off as their own that is actually from another cookbook). Anybody who submits a recipe selected as one of the two finalist recipes each week will get a free copy of the book along with cookware tailored to their recipe. The iterative process should bring hardcore foodies and fans of the authors coming back every week. By the end of the 52 weeks, Hesser and Stubbs will not only have the recipes for their cookbook, but also a built-in and built-up audience already sold on the book. It won’t be just a cookbook, it will be an artifact of their participation. The site itself is designed less to be a comprehensive cooking site than a highly curated one. In addition to the contests, there are editors’ picks. You can browse by recipes (organized both by category and most recent) or by cooks (contest winners, most active, and “cooks we admire”). Of course, there is also a blog on the site written by Hesser and Stubbs, although that is not front and center and the first entry is about the shoes they wear while cooking. Not terribly appetizing. Beyond the first book, Hesser and Stubbs hope to make Food52 into a food destination site. “Hopefully we will do more books,” says Hesser, “this is a starting point for gathering our community.” Food52 is owned and operated by Hesser and Stubbs through a company they co-founded called Burnt Toast, LLC funded with proceeds from the book advance. With any luck, the site will be worth more than the book.
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